126 



THEODORE ROBERTS, ESQ , ON 



peculiarly barbarous manner. This did not prevent their refusal 

 under Daniel's leadership of participation in the king's meat and 

 wine, no doubt in obedience to Moses, whose law was still valid 

 for them. They may have found it comparatively easy to follow 

 Daniel in his protest, but in the present scene they had to stand 

 on their own faith and with a horrible death in view as the penalty 

 for obeying conscience. 



Might I remark in passing that, if this Book had a merely 

 human origin such as the critics contend, we should certainly 

 have had some explanation given of the absence on this crucial 

 occasion of Daniel, who is by the critics posed as the great hero 

 of the Book. 



There is something noble and attractive in standing for a great 

 leader or for the worship of some venerated religious object, but 

 it is much more difficult to be enthusiastic over a negation, and 

 it cannot be too clearly pointed out that the witness of these three 

 youths was entirely negative. 



The image which they refused to worship was no doubt 

 suggested by the dream which Daniel had recently first told and 

 then interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar, and the king whose command 

 they dared to disobey was not only the greatest monarch in the 

 world, but the one about whom their own nation's prophet 

 Jeremiah had said that all nations must submit to him (Chapter 

 xxvii. 6-8). The Protestant Princes might refuse to bow to the 

 Roman consecrated Host in later times at the Diet in Germany, 

 but they had a large body of public opinion behind them, whereas 

 these three youths stood absolutely alone. 



Nebuchadnezzar appears to have felt some special interest in 

 his former page-boys, for he took the trouble to offer them a 

 second chance of obeying his command. But they tell the great 

 king, in whose hands their lives appeared to be, that they are not 

 careful to answer him, at once anticipating our Lord's direction in 

 after days to His disciples. After affirming that their God could 

 deliver them they add: But if not, be it known unto thee, O 

 King, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden 

 image which thou hast set up." 



I know nothing finer in all history than this answer, which 

 heralded the entrance of a new moral force into this world, 

 before which the mightiest monarchies were to crumble in the 

 dust. 



The same conscientious scruple led thousands of Christian 

 martyrs to refuse to throw a little incense on the altar burning 

 before the statue of the Roman Emperor of the day, although they 

 knew it meant death to refuse. 



